An Epicurean style take on happiness I stumbled upon:

What actually makes us happy (axios.com)

Gotta love it:

>>Know what counts as connection. Focus on real-time communication, which isn't a text or posting on someone's social media feed. As primates, we're evolved for live conversations, which can be virtual.<<

>>Happiness doesn't mean dispelling all negative emotions, which are part of what make us human. "I think especially in the tough times we're dealing with, negative emotions are normative. We need to pay attention to them because they're signaling changes that we need to make," Santos says. "Happiness really is about a decent ratio of positive to negative emotions."<<

I can confidently give one recommendation — do not watch television! I was fortunate enough to grow up in a house without television and I sill keep a far distance from it just as I would for any other screaming lunatic. Life IS easy and great — but your TV will argue against this fact!

Quote from Bryan

I can confidently give one recommendation — do not watch television! I was fortunate enough to grow up in a house without television and I sill keep a far distance from it just as I would for any other screaming lunatic. Life IS easy and great — but your TV will argue against this fact!

Social media too, if you want to be filled with anxiety about your weight, finances etc... spending an hour on insta or tiktok is a great way to achieve it.

Quote from Eoghan Gardiner

Social media too, if you want to be filled with anxiety about your weight, finances etc... spending an hour on insta or tiktok is a great way to achieve it.

Some anxiety is your conscience warning you of possible pain in the future. Of course things on the internet can often be "over the top" and annoying.

Yet these are practical issues...when is comes to weight, modern medicine gives tips for a range of what is considered a healthy weight based on height and gender. As for finances, it is important to consider your long-term situation, and thus relieve the anxiety by brainstorming solutions to any improvements that are needed and thus increase confidence in a sense of long-term security ...and this includes knowing which friend or family member would let you sleep on their couch if things went really wrong for whatever reason (but hopefully you've got all bases covered so nothing really wrong will ever happen).

Quote from Kalosyni

Quote from Eoghan Gardiner

Social media too, if you want to be filled with anxiety about your weight, finances etc... spending an hour on insta or tiktok is a great way to achieve it.

Some anxiety is your conscience warning you of possible pain in the future. Of course things on the internet can often be "over the top" and annoying.

Yet these are practical issues...when is comes to weight, modern medicine gives tips for a range of what is considered a healthy weight based on height and gender. As for finances, it is important to consider your long-term situation, and thus relieve the anxiety by brainstorming solutions to any improvements that are needed and thus increase confidence in a sense of long-term security ...and this includes knowing which friend or family member would let you sleep on their couch if things went really wrong for whatever reason (but hopefully you've got all bases covered so nothing really wrong will ever happen).

Yeah some anxiety can be useful to avoid future pains (obviously we don't want anxiety at all but none of us has reached Epicurean Theosis yet )

I guess the anxiety I was referring too was more seeing men who are on enhancement drugs and comparing or hundred millionaire lifestyles etc.. My anxiety was caused by unnatural and unnecessary desires rather than natural and necessary ones as you mentioned! Thank you for helping me clarify my own thoughts.

Ironically, financial anxiety was much higher in the years we had an income three times greater than today (we live in a small apartment now, on a fixed income; but are fortunate enough to have saved some assets). Partly because we were hit with some high-cost situations – but mostly because we were not at all frugal, and had running debt we tried to juggle. Some of that changed during our life-simplification years in the country.

Although we use credit cards to pay regular bills, we pay that off every month and never carry a balance – so we are effectively debt free. Our celebrations are simpler in fare, but just as festive in spirit. We just live in a simpler, more frugal comfort. Any brief anxieties are situational and short-lived (and, for me, as often as not knee-jerk reactivity – still a bit ingrained – but which I am able to dispel rather quickly).

As for guilt-anxiety – I pretty much let that go. Regrets can either be amended or not, that’s all. If so, I try to do that; if not, it’s sad but can’t be helped – so no sense clinging to it.